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Source: International Lake Superior Board of Control

The International Lake Superior Board of Control, under authority granted to it by the International Joint Commission, has set the Lake Superior outflow to 2,050 cubic metres per second (m3/s) (72.4thousand cubic feet per second (tcfs)) for the month of October. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Sault Star

Engineers are monitoring the Poe Lock after a gate malfunction closed the largest of the Soo Locks on Wednesday.

“It wasn’t mitring properly so we stopped traffic for a while [Wednesday morning],” said Klein.

“We’re still monitoring it,” he said.

Read the full story at the Sault Star >>

by Elizabeth Dunbar | Source: Forbes

ST. PAUL - The state pollution control agency approved strict standards for ships that discharge ballast water into Lake Superior, hoping they will cut down on the spread of harmful invasive species.

Unlike federal proposals pending in Congress, the new permit process will cover both oceangoing vessels and ships that stay within the Great Lakes.

…. by 2016, ships will be required to treat their ballast water before dumping it into Minnesota waters.

Details of interim and longer-range management, enforcement at Forbes >>

Source: Sault Star

The St. Mary’s River won’t run quite as high this month, as the International Lake Superior Board of Control responds to August’s Lake Superior water level decline.

Lake Superior, which normally rises by one centimetre in August, dropped by five centimetres last month.

Water supplies to the basins of Lake Superior and lakes Michigan-Huron were well below their long-term averages, said the board of control in its regular outflow update.

The reduced rate will mean decreased water levels on the St. Mary’s Rapids this month.

Read the rest of the story at the Sault Star >>

The Walter J. McCarthy, a 1000-footer, anchored above the Rock Cut Wednesday evening, likely due to low water levels. The St Marys River was well below datum at that point. The McCarthy had long since departed anchorage and cleared the River as of mid-day Thursday, September 4th.

Loaded freighters often anchor above and below the Rock Cut when water levels drop. Failing to wait could have disastrous results; without enough water, they may strike bottom, run firmly aground, damage the hull, and even possibly spill some of their cargo in the waterway.

It is more common to see ships anchored in the St Marys in the autumn and early winter months, as water levels tend to run lower in the lakes and therefore the river during that time of year. ##

Web: NOAA Great Lakes Online - live water level readings around the Great Lakes

Source: Duluth News Tribune

The level of Lake Superior declined by 2 inches during an unusually dry month of August, the International Lake Superior Board of Control reported Tuesday.

The lake dropped 2 inches during a month in which, on average, it goes up by a half-inch.

… The level of Lakes Michigan-Huron now sits 14 inches below normal but 7 inches above their level at this time last year.

Read the full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

For sale: Prime waterfront property, centrally located with spectacular views of Lake Superior, Park Point, Canal Park and the Lift Bridge.

The catch? A list of restrictions and requirements — including agreeing to maintain the structure’s historic designation and allowing unrestricted government access.

The federal government is putting the light tower next to the Aerial Lift Bridge on Duluth’s south breakwater on the auction block Sept. 16.

…The federal government decided last year that it no longer needs the 107-year-old light… The government made the tower available at no cost to any qualifying government agency, nonprofit, school or community development organization willing to use it for educational, recreational or historic preservation purposes. But with no takers, the U.S. General Services Administration decided to put it on the auction block.

The structure, properly called the “Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Inner Light Tower,” will come with many strings. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a new owner must maintain the structure’s historic designation and conduct a photographic survey. The owner must get a lease from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before the property is transferred. The winning bidder must obtain written approval from the government before making any alterations or improvements to the property. And the Coast Guard would reserve an unrestricted right to enter the structure to service, replace or move the still-operating aids to navigation.

“Outside of that, it’s yours,” Ullenberg said.

Read the full story, photos and how to place a bid (you know you want it!) at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: The Bay City Times

There are still a few days left to see the exhibit ”Great Lakes Titanics: Shipwrecks on the Inland Seas” at the Herbert D. Doan Midland County History Center.

Artifacts, photographs and information about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes will be featured, including that of the Edmund Fitzgerald, in which 29 men perished during a storm on Lake Superior in November of 1975. In addition, visitors can learn about diving and recent shipwreck dives and about the U.S. Life Saving Service, the forerunner of today’s Coast Guard.

The exhibit may be viewed through Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The History Center is at 3417 W. Main St. in Midland. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. For more information, call (800) 523-7649, (989) 631-8250, or log on to www.mcfta.org.

Source: Dredging News Online

The Lake Carriers’ Association in the US says shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 4.2 million net tons in July, a decrease of 4.8 per cent compared to a year ago, and a drop of nearly 9 per cent compared to the month’s five-year average.

“Although water levels are rising, not all ports are benefiting to the same degree,” said the Association. Read the rest of this entry »

By LARRY OAKES | Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

Somewhere down below, hidden in 500 feet of water, lay the wreckage of the Sunbeam, a wooden sidewheeler that sank with at least 25 passengers in 1863.

Jerry Eliason, Kraig Smith and two friends are determined to find it. They are a rare breed: Adventurers who spend much of their spare time and money searching for the shipwrecks that litter the bottom of Lake Superior.

‘There are only about 50 serious wreck hunters on the whole Great Lakes, and those guys on western Lake Superior are in the top five,” said Brendon Baillod, a maritime historian who runs www.ship-wrecks.net, a Great Lakes shipwreck research website.

About 100 Lake Superior shipwrecks remain unaccounted for, while the locations of more than 200 other submerged wrecks are known.

Eliason, Smith, and their friends Ken Merryman and Randy Beebe already have discovered eight of the lake’s long-lost wrecks.

Much more to this story, video at the Minneapolis Star Tribune >>

Source: Duluth Seaway Port Authority

Higher Great Lakes water levels, continued strong coal shipments and a windfall of wind turbine traffic all contributed to strong tonnage totals through July, yet Duluth-Superior’s maritime commerce is lagging slightly behind last year’s record-setting pace, the Duluth Seaway Port Authority reported today.

All cargo through July totaled 21 million short tons, 6.5 percent behind 2007, which is remarkable considering grain shipments were down 62 percent compared to this timeframe last year.

Lake Levels Up.

Above average spring rainfall in all of the Great Lakes basins raised lake levels well above their levels of a year ago. Lake Superior is 16 inches above last year’s level, and forecasted to rise an additional inch over the next 30 days, enough to allow vessels to depart Duluth-Superior with as much as 14 additional inches of draft compared to the end of last year’s shipping season.

Each inch of draft means about 270 tons of cargo for the largest domestic lakers and about 100 tons for typical Seaway vessels. The remaining Great Lakes range from 6 to 13 inches above their levels of a year ago, and despite some seasonal declines forecasted for Lakes Erie, Michigan-Huron and Ontario, all (with the exception of Erie) are expected to remain above 2007 water levels over the next few months.

Coal Leads Commerce.

Historically the Port’s No. 2 cargo, coal shipments eclipsed iron ore during the early months of the 2008 shipping season and continue as the Port’s maritime commerce leader to date. The clean-burning, low-sulfur coal shipped via the port’s Midwest Energy Resources Company terminal reached 9.9 million tons through July (three percent above last year’s level). Total iron ore shipments through July of 8.9 million tons were running 12.4 percent behind 2007 tonnage totals to date. Iron ore shipments are expected to increase in the second half of the shipping season.

Project Cargo on Track.

Project cargo shipments at the Clure Public Marine Terminal continue to be strong. Wind turbine component cargo handled by Lake Superior Warehousing Co. is Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Lake Carriers’ Association

Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 4.2 million net tons in July, a decrease of 4.8 percent compared to a year ago, and a drop of nearly 9 percent compared to the month’s 5-year average.

Although water levels are rising, not all ports are benefitting to the same degree. For example, a large integrated tug/barge unit was able to deliver 34,442 tons of stone to a customer at the southern end of Lake Michigan, yet when destined for Lake Superior docks, its cargos fell to 30,411 tons and 30,144 tons. The water level on Lake Superior has been rising quickly, but lack of dredging still forced the vessel to lightload by 4,000 tons or more.

For the year, the Lakes limestone trade stands at 16 million tons, a decrease of 4.4 percent compared to the same point in 2007. Shipments are more than 10 percent behind the 5-year average for the January-July timeframe.

Source: USCG

MARQUETTE, Mich. — The Coast Guard medically evacuated a 42-year-old male from the Burns Harbor, a 1,000-foot iron ore transport vessel, after he was experiencing chest pains early Wednesday morning.

The Burns Harbor was transiting 60 miles east of Marquette in Lake Superior.

“The position of the laker made the hoist challenging,” said a Coast Guard crewman.

A Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City HH-65C Dolphin helicopter airlifted the man from the Burns Harbor and transported him to Sawyer Airport to awaiting Emergency Medical Services.

“We got on scene, hoisted down the swimmer, sent down the basket and hoisted him [the victim] up, then retrieved the swimmer,” said Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Klatt, the helicopter pilot.

EMS transported him to Marquette General Hospital.

Mike Simonsen | Source: Business North

Residents of Madeline Island in the Apostle Islands are drawing up plans to become a self-sustaining energy community, and it could include two commercial grade windmills.

When the wind doesn’t blow and they had a wind turbine it wouldn’t do them much good so they’re still going to need a grid tie but if there’s a decent wind resource out there, one or two of the new fairly large commercial units would probably take care of the island.”

Wojciechski says they’ll need at least a year of good wind data before they’ll know if they can make this happen. But the Madeline Island community is ready to step forward.

Read the full story at Business North >>

Sharon Hill | Source: The Windsor Star

Lakes St. Clair, Huron and Superior are at their highest levels in the last four years.

“They’re all up,” Ralph Moulton, manager of the water level information office at Environment Canada, said Tuesday.

Lake Superior, which affects the levels of the other Great Lakes and had dropped to record lows a year ago, is 41 cm higher than it was last year at this time, Moulton said.

Lake Huron is 23 cm higher and Lake Ontario is 31 cm higher than a year ago.

… David Cree, president of the Windsor Port Authority, said he’s hoping lake levels will keep rising.

“The higher water levels this year are good news for everybody in the industry,” Cree said. “If the trend of the last four to five years had continued … it would have been a real issue this year and next year. We’re hoping now that’s bottomed out and we’re on an upward trend in lake levels.”

The same amount of cargo goes through the Windsor port but during times of low lake levels it takes more ships to move goods on the lakes because the ships have to carry less.

Read the full story, with more stats & quotes at the Windsor Star >>

by Tina Lam | Source: Detroit Free Press

Heavy snow and rains since last winter have made the lakes rise. Scientists aren’t sure whether this will last, but they’re hopeful. The temperatures, moisture and ice cover next winter will be critical.

“If we get two more good, normal winters with normal precipitation, then we’d have a turnaround,” said Cynthia Sellinger, deputy director of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Lake Superior, which beat its 1926 record low last fall, rebounded to within 4 inches of its long-term average in July. Lakes Erie and Ontario are 2 and 4 inches, respectively, above their July averages.

Lakes Michigan and Huron are up 8 inches, though still lagging more than a foot below their normal July levels. Lake St. Clair is up 10 inches from last year and down just 2 inches from its normal for July.

… Ships on the Great Lakes that carry coal, iron ore and cement for industry moved slightly more cargo in June than they did a year ago, but they’re still loading light because some harbors still are too shallow, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association in Cleveland.

Despite 16 inches more water in Lake Superior last week compared with a year ago, the Wenonah ferry from Grand Portage, Minn., to Isle Royale National Park still is not running. Last summer was the first in 30 years the 149-passenger boat couldn’t get to the island.

Read why the lakes rebounded, further impacts and mid-term forecasts all at the Detroit Free Press >>

** See Also: Incredible video of rescue taken by oiler Ed Spicuzza, on CNN.com

Source: U.S. Coast Guard

MARQUETTE, Mich. - A Coast Guard Helicopter crew medically evacuated a man suffering from internal bleeding off a 767-foot freighter Thursday in Lake Superior.

The 36-year-old crewmember from the freighter, American Valor, was transferred to Emergency Medical Services and brought to Marquette General Hospital.

An HH-65 Dolphin Rescue Helicopter, from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City arrived at approximately 9 a.m. and hoisted the man off the ship.

He was taken to Sawyer Airport and taken to awaiting Emergency Medical Services.

by Tom Skilling | Source: Chicago Tribune

Lake Michigan’s water level has risen 8 inches above the same period a year ago. Once just 6 to 12 inches above all-time lows, lake levels are up in response to the same downpours that caused many area rivers to flood. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which monitors the Great Lakes, predicts the higher levels are to hold through the coming months, though, barring new waves of heavy rains, the biggest rises have probably already occurred. Interconnected Lakes Michigan and Huron are unlikely to change significantly in the next month.

The corps reports other Great Lakes have experienced increased levels as well, with Lake Superior 16 inches higher than a year ago.

Full story at the Chicago Tribune >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled in favor of environmental groups pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ship ballast discharges under the Clean Water Act.

The decision upholds 2005 and 2006 lower court rulings that the EPA must begin enforcing the Clean Water Act for all ship discharges starting Sept. 30 this year. The EPA and shipping interests had challenged the lower court rulings.

… The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is moving forward based on the court rulings to regulate ships’ ballast discharges in Minnesota waters of Lake Superior, requiring permits of all ballasted ships on Sept. 30 and gradually requiring ships to treat ballast water over the next eight years.

Full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

by Chuck Frederick | Source: Duluth News Tribune

“What is that building without a roof that can be seen in Lake Superior from the Lakewalk? We are puzzled!”

… the structure [is known] as “the cribs,” because that’s how it’s referred to on federal lake charts, [or] more intriguingly, as “Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum.”

… “It is the ruins of an energetic but short-lived commercial enterprise by [the] Whitney Brothers of Superior,” the marker reads. “It was Harvey Whitney’s brainchild.

“The structure was a sand [and] gravel hopper, built in the winter of 1919 and abandoned in 1922. It was a frantic era of Duluth construction in 1919, and Harvey was looking for efficiencies for his sand and gravel operation. He didn’t like the canal congestion, especially in the heavy summer months. He took a chance that the city would revive efforts to rebuild the Outer Harbor Breakwater, which had been abandoned in 1872.

“Sand from the lake around the Apostle Islands and gravel from Grand Marais were hauled to Duluth on the scow, Limit, using the steam tug, William A. Whitney,” the marker continues. “The Limit was tied to the concrete foundation structure and unloaded to the steel hopper with two steam-powered clam shells. A large conveyor belt on a trestle carried the materials to shore where they were dropped on top of a tunnel into which trucks would maneuver for loading.”

… While their sand and gravel hopper idea was ingenious … it could only have worked when Lake Superior was calm. Which was practically never.

Read the full story, see photo at the Duluth News Tribune >>

by Peter Passi | Source: Duluth News Tribune

“Gary was the magic man, in terms of marketing the port,” said Davis Helberg, former executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

“No one else has done for the port’s cargo profile what Gary Nicholson did,” he said.

One of Nicholson’s primary orders of business was to mend fractured labor relations with the port’s longshoremen, a move that improved productivity, said Adolph Ojard, who succeeded Helberg as director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority five years ago.

He said Nicholson also was quick to recognize and market the port’s ability to quickly and efficiently transload cargo between ships, trucks and trains. With access to four separate railroads, shippers who use the Twin Ports often benefit from more competitive rates.

Chuck Hilleren, president of Guthrie-Hubner Inc., a Duluth ship agent, said “Because of his background in rail, trucking and marine operations, he could put the whole package together.”

… Despite the pressures and rigors of the job, Clarke said Nicholson was always a pleasure to work with.

“He was always true to his word. If Gary said he’d do something, he did it,” Clarke said.

Nicholson’s work ethic was impeccable as well, Clarke added.

“He’d stay up with you for 24 hours straight, if that was what it took to get the job done.”

“Much of what you see today in the port has Gary Nicholson’s fingerprints on it,” Helberg said.

In Nicholson’s memory, his friends and family have established the G.W. Scholarship Fund, to support students in the University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Transportation and Logistics program. Memorials may be sent to the UWS Advancement Office, P.O. Box 2000, Superior, WI 54880.

Please read more about Gary’s work and legacy at the Duluth News Tribune >>